Infographic: 21 buzzworthy facts

This well-researched and cleverly assembled infographic, 21 Buzzworthy Facts, is the work of Jake Lane of LawnStarter, Inc. I especially like that it doesn’t say anything about “one-third of all the food we eat” (I’m really tired of that), it does not try to glorify CCD as the next Armageddon, nor does it try to convince us that honey bees are disappearing, endangered, or otherwise threatened. Instead, he makes a solid, fact-based infographic that is fun to read. I hope you enjoy it.

Hi Rusty, I must admit I have been taken in by the doom-sayers. I thought that honey bees did pollinate 1/3 of our fruits and vegetables and that honeybees were in endangered by Nosema, Varroa, pesticides and other problems that bee keepers did not need to deal with in the past. Is there a resource that you would recommend to provide a reasonably un-dramatized view of the current health of the honeybee population in the US?

I can’t answer this thoroughly because I’m only allotted one lifetime and most of that is used up. But long story short, there are a lot of ways to measure a third: by weight, volume, number of species, caloric content, nutritional value, monetary value, etc. People who say “one-third” rarely say which one they mean and they are all different, so it is meaningless. If you follow the he-said/she-said back through the scientific literature, it’s more like animal pollinators are required for about 1/3 of plant species, and even this is a wild guess. But there are thousands of animal pollinators, of which bees are just a fraction, and of bees, honey bees are one species of about 20,000 named species and possibly another 20,000 unnamed.

So, honey bees are a drop in the pollinator bucket. We use them in intensive agriculture because they are easy to move. You move the honey bees out of the field, dump on your poisons, and bring the honey bees back. You can’t do that with most other species, which is why honey bees have become so important to modern farming. But in the absence of intensive poisoning and large monocultures, the other pollinators can, and always have, done just fine. Unfortunately, in the system we have, it’s the native bees, butterflies, beetles and other insects that are in serious trouble.

Yes, there are many honey bee diseases, but still the honey bees persist. The 20-year high number of colonies in the the US is a sign they are not on the edge of extinction or cataclysm. For more on this see: “The truth about honey bee decline.” If you have access to a university library, there are hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles on this subject.

I have seen the studies that say the number of bee colonies are at an all time high. No doubt this is the hard work of beekeepers making splits to cover loses. I suspect they are making more splits to make up for potential future loses as well. One thing I don’t like about this study is that quantity is represented, but not quality. The number of colonies says nothing about the health and strength of each of those colonies. Given the struggles and percent of loses I would venture to guess these colonies are t very strong. I do a lot of live bee removal and I know I’ve certainly seen a decline in the quality of the colonies I’ve been rescuing and that’s in feral bees.

That is certainly not true: honey bee colonies are not anywhere near an all-time high, they are at a 20-year high. Fifteen to 20 years ago, feral colonies were said to be completely wiped out in certain sections of the country. Now, ferals are found more and more often, and seem to be thriving. Reports of feral colonies 5 to 10 years old are no longer uncommon, something that unhealthy colonies wouldn’t be able to acheive. That honey bees, especially feral colonies, seem to be turning the corner is something to celebrate.

Yes, sorry. I meant the 20 year high referenced in the info graph. I’m just saying the number of hives doesn’t represent quality among those managed hives. So it seems kind of like a jump to say this statistic means they honeybee plight is improving. In regards to feral colonies, yes I’m sure compared to the dive they took when the mites arrived, they are doing better. I’m seeing a decline in health in terms of more recent years. It could be because of the CA drought.

When I read through the infographic, I too was pleased by the content, but was surprised to find that it had been created by “LawnStarter,” as lawns as they’ve been conceived by so many are so often strictly maintained as bee deserts. So I found the source of the infographic as puzzling.

When I went to their website to do further investigation about their practices, I was quickly presented with a LiveChat window asking if I needed any help. I shared the above thought with the representative as to why I was visiting and he acknowledged that he could see where I was coming from. I suggested that “If LawnStarter genuinely wishes to do something valuable for bees, it would be to educate the public about allowing flowering plants such as clover to be as welcome in their lawn as anything else, and of course, not treating their lawns with herbicides. My 2 cents.” His response: “that’s actually great feedback, I’ll be sure to pass that along to content side of the building.” I hope he does.

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Bee Wise

Bee-yond Bees

Bees are more than a hobby;
they are a life study,
in many respects a mirror
of our own society.

—William Longgood

Why Honey Bee is Two Words

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

State Insects

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas

Georgia

Kansas

Louisiana

Maine

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

New Jersey

North Carolina

Oklahoma

South Dakota

Tennessee

Utah

Vermont

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Update! Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!

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Honey Bee Suite is dedicated to honey bees, beekeeping, wild bees, other pollinators, and pollination ecology. It is designed to be informative and fun, but also to remind readers that pollinators throughout the world are endangered. Although they may seem small and insignificant, pollinators are vital to anyone who eats.